Walter Bone Shirt Ledger

This cloth-bound ledger includes eighteen colored pencil and India ink drawings, many depicting what may be ceremonial dress or dream scenes. It is believed to have been done by Brule Lakota artist Walter Bone Shirt.

Donated by Genevieve Prochnow, daughter of the Assistant Adjutant General of Command at Rosebud Agency, John S. Parke.

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Local Identifier

boneshirt_ledger

Notes

Very little is known about Walter Bone Shirt other than that he was a Brulé Lakota artist and his Indian name was Never Misses. He is generally referred to in the ethnographic literature as Walter Bone Shirt, though census records indicate he was called Junior Bone Shirt. A few other examples of his ledger art are known to exist in private holdings and this collection of drawings has been attributed to him based on artistic similarities.